CFDA Honoree Oscar de la Renta Opens Up About How He Hustled the Paris Fashion Scene

On Monday, Oscar de la Renta will accept the Founders Award at the glitzy annual CFDA Awards--which he actually helped start back in 1981. It's a pretty big honor, and one that will be presented to him by none other than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However, the outspoken designer told Bridget Foley in a recent interview that he would actually rather be up for designer of the year.
De la Renta candidly expressed many more of his bold opinions over a lunch date interview with Alexander Wang (one of the designers he'd be competing with if he was up for designer of the year), which Style.com documented.
What we're saying is, more reasons to love Oscar de la Renta, right his way:

On Monday, Oscar de la Renta will accept the Founders Award at the glitzy annual CFDA Awards--which he actually helped start back in 1981. It's a pretty big honor, and one that will be presented to him by none other than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However, the outspoken designer told Bridget Foley in a recent interview that he would actually rather be up for designer of the year.
De la Renta candidly expressed many more of his bold opinions over a lunch date interview with Alexander Wang (one of the designers he'd be competing with if he was up for designer of the year), which Style.com documented.
What we're saying is, more reasons to love Oscar de la Renta, right his way:

De la Renta candidly expressed many more of his bold opinions over a lunch date interview with Alexander Wang (one of the designers he'd be competing with if he was up for designer of the year), which Style.com documented.

Revealing he was just as bold and confident from day one as he is now, de la Renta recounted his fast and, um, less-than-honest rise through the ranks of the fashion biz in Paris and New York. From lying to Balenciaga, Dior and Lanvin, to seeking advice from Diana Vreeland, read on for the most interesting (and often funny) things we learned about Mr. de la Renta.

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He basically quit Balenciaga, where he was "picking up pins," without telling Cristobal:

After a few years, I asked Balenciaga if I could come to Paris [he'd been working for Balenciaga in Madrid]. And he said, "Well, I think you should stay one more year in Madrid." And probably he was right. But by then I was too anxious to move on. Without telling him, I bought myself a train ticket and went to Paris.

Then he got a job at Dior within 24 hours, just by knocking on the door:

And I arrived in Paris, and I always believed you have to go and knock at the biggest door. Don't start at the bottom, start at the top. So, I went to Dior. This was the time when YSL had just left Dior. There was that whole big scene that Yves had a nervous breakdown because of the military service, and they were in the process of hiring Marc Bohan. I saw a lady who was running the studio, Madame Marguerite, and she offered me a job. I had been in Paris twenty-four hours, and I already had a job at Dior.

Later that same day, he got a job at Lanvin that paid more:

But I met a friend of mine in the street, and he said, "There is a very good friend looking for an assistant." I told him, "I've just been offered a job at Dior that I've accepted, but I would love to see him anyway." Half an hour later, I was in front of Mr. [Antonio del] Castillo, who was then designing the collection for Lanvin. I showed my sketches to him, and he liked them. What is funny about this story is that one of his assistants was leaving because he was friends with Marc Bohan, and he was going to be working with him at Dior. But I didn't know any of this. So Castillo says, "I like your sketches. I'd like you to work for me." And I said, "Well, in fact, I've already accepted another job." So he said, "How much are they paying you?" So I made a huge big lie, and I gave them a higher amount.

That's not the only thing he lied about:

I had never draped anything. I had seen Balenciaga do it, but had I myself done it? Never. But I said, "Of course, I know how to drape." As I left Lanvin, I went to the telephone booth and I looked in the yellow pages and I found the biggest ad for a fashion school. It was not the school of the Chambre Syndicale. I went to this lady, I showed her my sketches and said, "I just accepted this job to work at Lanvin, so would you teach me in a month what you teach in a year?" And she said, "I'll try." But I never was put to the test.

Then, he moved to New York where he got job offers from Elizabeth Arden and Christian Dior New York. Diana Vreeland helped him choose:

I went to see Mrs. Vreeland in that red room of hers, you know, and she said, "Young man, tell me what you want to do." And I said, "Mrs. Vreeland, I think the future of fashion is ready-to-wear." And she said, "Well, in that case I think you should go to Elizabeth Arden," where I was going to be making another custom-made collection. I thought she misunderstood me. "But at Arden, I'll be doing the same thing I was doing in Paris," I said. And she said, "Yes, but if you take the Dior job, it will be much more difficult to make a name for yourself, because you'll be working behind a very big name. At Elizabeth Arden, you'll be able to make a name for yourself."

He wishes the CFDA didn't give awards to foreigners:

With the CFDA, my only big mistake is that we gave an award to a foreign designer. I think it was a big mistake, and I'm still fighting it. Neither the Italians nor the French have ever given a prize to an American designer in their industry, so why the heck do we have to do it for them?

Marlene Dietrich once got paid $20,000 for an honorary CFDA award that she did not show up to receive:

She said, "How much money are they giving me?" And I said, "Miss Dietrich, this is an honorary award," and she said, "I'm sick and tired of honors." So Bill Blass and I, which was a lot of money for me at the time, sent her $10,000 each to pay for her telephone bills, because she talked on the phone a lot.

AW: Did she turn up at the ceremony?

ODLR: No.

He doesn't care for Dior or Schiaparelli

The two designers who really strongly marked the twentieth century in fashion were Balenciaga and Chanel. I don't particularly care for Dior, Schiap. I think that Balenciaga and Chanel had a very clear vision of what they were about, and what is most important is that the formula still today is a valid formula. Not that you have to do Balenciaga, you have a great legacy there.

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Two and a half years after being let go from Dior and his namesake label, John Galliano has yet to land at any permanent position. He was rumored to be teaching, but Parsons cancelled his scheduled workshop. There are rumors he may design costumes for a West End production. But so far his strongest re-entrance to the fashion world has been his three-week stint with Oscar de la Renta. And WWD is now reporting that Galliano is in talks to continue his relationship with the New York-based designer... maybe permanently.

F-U-N. Oscar de la Renta covered his ladies who lunch (and political wives, like Ann Romney, who just wore one of his designs to deliver her RNC speech) and his twenty-something socialite party girls with this raucous spring collection.

After nearly 50 years in the business, it's no wonder 80-year-old Oscar de la Renta has a lot to say about the fashion industry. Like, really a lot.
The designer sat down for a revealing interview with William Norwich for New York magazine's spring fashion issue. Find out what de la Renta had to say about just what John Galliano is doing in his studio and how he got there; the fact that Michelle Obama has never worn his designs; and making up with Cathy Horyn.